Entrepreneurship & Innovation
A hackathon that funds its winners to keep building
Griffin Consigli co-hosted OurPlanet.Rocks, a free virtual hackathon for high school and university students that drew 217+ sign-ups and raised $600+ in launch grants for its winners, plus a $1,000 scholarship opportunity.
OurPlanet.Rocks is a free, virtual hackathon. Griffin Consigli hosted the competition with two friends. The brief for the high schoolers and university students taking part was to build a project of their own, "whether that's a technical solution, business plan, organizational plan, or campaign," he says.
The competition was set for August 7th to 9th. From the start it had 217+ sign-ups and had raised $600+ to support launch grants, alongside a $1,000 scholarship opportunity, awarded to the winners so they can continue building their projects after the competition ends. A programme of events ran alongside the hackathon itself.
“Now, I'm trying to give other people my age the same opportunity to do so.”
Griffin Consigli
He attributes the idea to his experience with building in public. "Building in public completely accelerated my growth," he says. "Now, I want to give other people that same opportunity."
The launch grants are the part he wants to last. They exist so the winning teams can keep building once the three days are over.